Why do conservatives make such a big deal about Hollywood?

[Tony_FLADEM]

Hollywood is not real. Movies and television programs are make believe. I can't understand why they spend so much time on something that is made up.

[rawtribe]

1. Can you say

Jesus

:evilgrin:

[mitchum]

2. Beat me to it!

:)

[marc_the_dem]

43. as Archie Bunker used to say "stifle, Edith, stifle"

neocons hate descent... They're right and we're wrong. Hollywood represents independent thought and that goes against what they're all about...

[Cobalt Violet]

3. Most actors are not conservative repukes.

:)

[K-W]

4. Because it is a legitimately foriegn influence on them.

There is a bias to hollywood, the natural bias of the industry and the people in it. It does, in some cases, reflect values that many people in rural areas find discomforting and even disturbing.

So conservatives take this, call it liberal bias, combine it with an assinine theory of how liberals are the elites ruining thier lives, and push the idea that hollywood is the problem. They force this through thier propaganda establishment.

[InvisibleBallots]

30. Hollywood IS propaganda

[George_S]

46. Agreed, the nature of movies is pro-individualism...

... because the lead roles are individuals. Stereotypes won't work in a good film. There must be three dimensions and back-story that add depth to the characters, even the villain, so the Republican sound-bytes of superficial good vs evil cannot work. There can be and often are good stories about good and evil, but they are three dimensional and more nuanced than the wingnuts can deal with. They might have to think and they don't like their tunnel vision challenged. Too much work that makes their little heads hurt.

Ironically, Hollywood is very moral and the nature of a character arc is the realization of a moral insight or at least a new insight into the human condition. Even if the character doesn't get it, the audience does. Again, the wingnuts object because in their reactionary and egotistical minds, right and wrong is already a given, as if the 50s or some other period were the Golden Age of America. It is hubris to think there was an age when we knew it all already.

Wingnuts hate the present and the future but love the past. Hollywood challenges that. As long as Hollywood is free, totalitarian fascism or theocracy cannot completely take hold in the U. S., and they sure don't like that.

If the wingnuts ever gain control of Hollywood, democracy is dead.

[TwentyFive]

5. They hate anything creative and good.

>Music
>Science
>Rational Thought
>Art
>Psychology
>Environment & Wilderness
>Human Compassion

They want to ban, exploit, defile, defund or destroy all the human wonders.

It all boils down to jesus and $$$.

[Gemini Cat]

17. They are scare of what they don't understand.

Then... what they don't understand they destroy.
They destroy a lot.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. Hollywood is just a convenient whipping boy, that all.

The leaders of the GOP could care less on a personal level, it's a cynical political ploy.

[Zero Gravitas]

36. Yup

They need an "other" as an object of hate. Doesn't matter who or why, so long as there is some group they can use to whip up anger among their moran-American base.

[Johonny]

38. agree

It's an easy soft target. Same reason their making a big stink about steroids in sports.

[Threedifferentones]

7. Because they have nothing better to say

[bemildred]

8. Well, they don't want to talk about the deficit now, do they? nt

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Their masters of their thoughts...

Want to control Hollywood. They want to dictate content to their own benefit.

[Mike Niendorff]

10. Because the evil secular liberal socialist Hollywood Establishment ...

... is secretly conspiring against the Godly Patriotic Righteous Republican Party and all the Good Christians of the nation.

Rush told them so. So did Fox News Channel, the Washington Times and the Jesus Channel. Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Pat Robertson confirmed it.

Thus, in BushLand, it must be true.


MDN

[KitchenWitch]

21. And they are

Making a lot of MONEY, that the wingnuts cannot control!

[rocktivity]

11. Fear and envy of its influence.

They don't control it, and would love to very much. So they have to destroy it by accusing it of being too liberal!

:headbang:
rocknation

[donheld]

12. Hollywood also challenges people to think for themselves

You know how much fundies hate self thinking.

[the other rick]

28. You don't seriously believe that, do you?

If you do, you aren't in the movie or TV industry.

Folks, Hollywood and Studio City are ruled by Beverly Hills and Century City - suits and lawyers. The group think in Hollywood, the pressure to conform, is worse than a bad high school.

[kskiska]

13. They didn't seem to mind that Ronnie Ray-gun came from there

and brought all his Hollywood friends to the White House, and whooped it up at all those white tie parties.

[Starlight]

14. I was actually reading a Republican quote about that a couple months ago.

To paraphrase: Basically, they're jealous because liberals seem so trendy & artsy & intellectual & cool & Repubs are just a bunch of half witted dorks. :nopity:

[Tennessee Gal]

15. Hollywood is full of Republicans, too!!!!!!

The right wing nutzoids just get off on spreading the crap about "liberals" in Hollywood. It is another lie the so-called "liberal media" swallows hook, line, and sinker.

Take a gander at this!

List of Republican celebrities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republican_celebrities

[Cookie wookie]

22. Interesting too that the right wing zealots

complain about Hollywood, but most of the arts (film and music) are now controlled by corporations that have extracted every bit of the "art" out in an effort to control and manipulate the mediums to Make More Money$$$$$$.

If "liberals" were controlling Hollywood, German director Leni Riefenstahl - best known for making films for Adolf Hitler would never have been honored at the Academy Awards -- was it last year or the year before? I stopped even watching them because the "suits" have basically killed film art in America (as well as music).

Right wingers can't make art, so they hate it ---just like they hate the natural world and natural human behavior. True art comes from surrender of control, from opening up, from the heart, soul, and spirit. You have to be human to make art.

[billie_]

16. because they can't talk about *real* issues...it's a red herring n/t

[Az]

18. Conveyance of culture

Hollywood serves as the single greatest distribution of cultural value. And its values are decidedly liberal compared to the religious rights agenda. The irony is that Hollywood's morality and culture are defined by capitalistic drives. That is Hollywood's refusal to take a particular side on religious issues is because it markets it's products to the widest possible market. Which of course means it can't pin itself down. Thus it approaches a fairness through market capitalistic drives.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

25. You are close

But it's not just driven by capitalism. Look at Mel Gibson's movie the Passion. It made tons of money, but he had a devil of a time ;) to get it produced in Hollywood.

Hollywood, by and large, ignores the religious market and leaves money lying around that would be readily spent on movies.

[the other rick]

29. This is closer to what conservatives *actually* think

Despite the howls of conservatives being jealous, ignorant, uptight dorks here, conservatives actually have a *reason* to dislike the Hollywood machine.

As someone pointed out, movies and TV are *amazingly* effective at transmitting cultural values. And as someone else pointed out, Hollywood ignores many markets. Mel Gibson found it impossible to make The Passion even after marketing showed that it had a huge potential market. After that movie made a literal fortune, studios still aren't willing to touch religious themes in a manner consistent with the outlook and attitude of religious *people*. On the other hand, Dogma, a film very critical of religion, was lavishly funded, massively promoted, and was a lousy movie.

Many conservatives look at an industry that has incredible influence of culture and society, that is not willing to portray religion in a positive/faithful light, that is willing to portray religion in a negative light despite protests, that uses sexuality and to make money but will not use religious ideas to make money (when it is obviously there to be made) and conclude that it is either completely not interested in portraying a major part of western culture, or that it is trying to *change* western culture, or that it is simply antagonistic to their culture.

Not too much of a stretch, really.

[sendero]

39. one man's 'lousy movie' is another's masterpiece....

... so "The Passion..." was a work of great moviemaking? I doubt it, but I'm not willing to subject myself to it to see.

Hollywood represents the last place in American culture where bullshit hasn't taken over completely. Rightwingnuts get routinely portrayed as the basket-case idiots they are, politicians as the greedy ass-suckers they are.

If they take down Hollywood, there will be no free expression left in this country. The right finally realized they couldn't stop rock music, so they cop-opted it with hundreds of bland me-too dipshits feeding back for Jesus. The right is taking over the school boards, ramming through "abstinence education" which is a proven failure. They have (quite probably through vote fraud) taken over Washington and now they want Hollywood as well. Screw them.

[drbtg1]

40. ...umm, about Dogma?

The film wasn't lavishly funded by Hollywood standards. No Kevin Smith films are lavishly funded. It got some big name actors like Chris Rock because of his work on "Chasing Amy", not big paydays. Matt Damon was there because Kevin Smith helped get "Good Will Hunting" made (Kevin Smith was an executive producer).

The real promotion it got was from Disney refusing to distribute it and William Donohue's Catholic League objecting to it, not money for commercials.

As for "lousy", well, that's in the eye of the beholder, but I don't think I'd call it "a film very critical of religion". The sense I got from the film was that Kevin Smith was a rather religious person derived from his Catholic upbringing, but is willing to point out organized religions' failings and hypocrisy. He believes but isn't blind. And that's the film Disney ran away from. It took Lion's Gate, a very small distributor, to distribute it. Just like Passion.

[Piperay]

19. Jealousy

because Hollywood now supports the Democrats, they sure loved Hollywood when it supported Raygun. x(

[rman]

20. art - creativity - independent thinking

oh, the horror :)

[Hello_Kitty]

23. Cuz social liberals create the best entertainment

Think about typical conservative entertainment fare. Formulaic shoot-em-up patriotic action movies, boring epics, Jesus as an action figure, crappy schmaltz like 'Touched by an Angel' and 'Seventh Heaven'. Bleech.

I watched "Angels in America" in its entirety on HBO a few nights ago. I sat transfixed by it from 8pm until 2am. I remembered marvelling at what 'liberal Hollywood' had wrought in that incredible program. Neither Mel Gibson nor Bruce Willis in their wildest dreams could produce anything so moving and inspiring. That's why they hate them.

[w4rma]

24. They don't have as much control over Hollywood as they do over most

of the rest of the mainstream media.

[hollowdweller]

26. To inoculate themselves they try to denigrate anybody that might give the

dems an edge. In reality they like Bruce Willis and Arnold fine and will use them. However by labeling it "hollywood" they create a situation where they can stereotype rather than take each actor on his own merits.

[Killarney]

27. hatred of the "elite"

they view Hollywood with scorn because of the money, the looks, the creativity, etc.

[NewJeffCT]

31. They are trying to tear down the Hollywood money machine

Most of the Hollywood money goes to Democrats and a majority of the celebrities out there are liberal (however, it is not as huge a majority as Republicans would have you believe!).

Republicans bash Hollywood to reduce the influence of celebrities & their money...Just like tort reform is a way to reduce money to another money-maker for Democrats in trial lawyers...just like Reagan firing the air traffic controllers had a chilling long-term effect on unions, another cornerstone of Democratic money.

[slowroll]

32. Flame me,

but I don't like Hollywood either. It's not because of the Jeebus factor. Well, I don't like the WAY Hollywood portrays sex and violence, but I'm not against its portrayal per se.

What eats me up about film and television is the goddamn CONSUMERISM. It seems like every popular TV show or movie I see promotes conspicuous consumption and a constant emphasis on style and appearance over substance. I find that FAR more frightening than either the boobs on the screen or the boobs at the pulpit.

[sendero]

44. Hey, I couldn't agree....

...more. But nothing is all good or all bad. At least Hollywood actually sometimes makes movies that require you to consider that things might not be as they seem.

[JHB]

33. TOC: Target Of Convenience

Everybody has some celebrity that annoys them, and "celebrities" are by definition "rich and famous" (even when they aren't).

So by lumpng together rich&famous people who annoy you...

You get class warfare by proxy: let people be mad at some high-profile rich people rather than the ones who actually have their hands on the levers of power.

[leesa]

34. Because they are the only progressives with enough money and

exposure to get the progressive message out. Note that they have NO PROBLEM with fools like Ahnode, Reagan, and those idiotic enough to be Republicans.

[Flagg]

35. Jealousy. Repukes have no artistic talent.

Their talents lie elsewhere: deceit, manipulation, stealing elections, cheating, lying their way into wars, genocide, praying to Jesus, creationism, bombing abortion clinics, hating the Clintons, quagmires, hating the French etc...

[KurtNYC]

37. I suspect it is like many other things - they did a focus group

and saw there was an advantage in demonizing Hollywood. But their vocal condemnations haven't stopped them from worshipping 2 of Hollywood's stars: Arnold Schwartzenegger and Ronald Reagan.

Republicans are barely limited by any need to be consistent.

[Javaman]

41. Because they are all drama queen wanna be stars...

[booley]

42. 2 reasons...

one, they need an elite to blame stuff on. Like franks said in What's the matter with Kansas, the repubs took populaism and gutted it. People, even the freepers, know that they really aren't in control of thier own lives anymore. It's not some secretive cabal of conspracy theorists, it's a simple ogliarchy of the have's vs the have nots.
But the repubs want to "look " like the party of the people. This should be hard when the party caters to the top 10% of the country. But they can hardly put the focus on the elite that actually influences policy in this country. So they replace their elite causing the problems with another one that realy doesn't have much power but is generally liberal and widespread.
It's a great distraction and provides a convenient scapegoat.

Secondly, Cons are afraid of hollywood because Hollywood is all about forming a perception to tell a story. To cons, PERCEPTION IS REALITY so ironicly they give Hollywood far more credit then it deserves for shaping our culture. So they honestly think that if a "last Temptation of Christ" comes out, it means that Hollywood is leading a charge to destroy Christianity, while a 'Passion" will lead people to become Fundies just like them.
They ignore the simple fact that people pay to watch films they think they are going to like, which means those films already seem to have a common POV with the audience watching them.

The first reason covers the Republican leadership which is manipulating it's base to vote against thier own interests.

The second covers why this base would allow itself to be manipulated and vote against it's own interests.

[starroute]

45. More than a touch of old-fashioned anti-Semitism

They don't usually admit it in public, but a fair chunk of the right privately clings to very old-line conspiracy theories in which all that is good and holy is under threat from a cabal of Freemasons, Jews, and elite internationalists who want to destroy Christianity and Western civilization and impose a soulless world dictatorship.

When they do express it openly, it's usually in the form of rants about the New World Order or United Nationals black helicopters. Or inexplicable French-bashing. But the anti-Semitic component is almost always there, not too far under the surface, and most often comes out as coded attacks on New York City, Hollywood, "literal elites," "liberal media," and so forth.

(This, by the way, has nothing to do with positions on Israel -- many of the strongest supporters of Israel on the radical right are also extreme anti-Semites in the old-fashioned sense.)

The fact that Hollywood does tend to be morally tacky gives them a certain amount of cover for their attacks -- but if you look closely, you can see that the real basis for their hatred is not excessive sex or violence, but values like tolerance, multiculturalism, and lifestyle diversity.

[Skittles]

47. conservatives cannot tolerate dissent

and Hollywood is an easy target